“The Housemaid” has sliced through $300 million at the global box office, a major milestone for the mid-budget movie.
So far, the R-rated psychological thriller, starring Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried, has earned $116 million domestically and a particularly impressive $189.1 million internationally, bringing its global tally to $305 million.
Lionsgate spent just $35 million to produce “The Housemaid,” which means it’ll be wildly profitable for the studio. The film opened ahead of Christmas with a modest $19 million in North America and then remained a draw well into the new year, thanks to positive reviews and word-of-mouth. Last weekend, “The Housemaid” was No. 1 in several overseas territories including the United Kingdom, France, Mexico, Brazil and Spain — a feat considering the film debuted nearly a month ago in those markets. Top-earning territories include the United Kingdom ($36.4 million), France ($33.4 million), Latin America ($26.2 million), Australia and New Zealand ($15.3 million) and Spain ($12.5 million).
Directed by Paul Feig and based on Freida McFadden’s best-selling novel, the twisted story follows a young woman (Sweeney) with a mysterious past who is hired as the live-in maid for a very wealthy family. Seyfried and Brandon Sklenar play the husband and wife whose perfect life is far from what it seems. Given the film’s outsized success — and that McFadden wrote two sequels — a second installment, “The Housemaid’s Secret,” is already in the works, with Sweeney, Feig and actor Michele Morrone (who plays the groundskeeper) expected to return.
With this benchmark, “The Housemaid” ranks as Sweeney’s highest-grossing film as a starring vehicle, surpassing 2023’s sleeper hit “Anyone but You” ($220.2 million). Sweeney’s credits also include Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” which earned $392 million globally, but she only has a brief appearance in that movie. “The Housemaid” was released shortly after the theatrical collapse of last November’s “Christy,” a biographical drama in which Sweeney portrayed the trailblazing boxer Christy Martin. The R-rated film was rejected with $1.3 million to start and left theaters with a tragic $1.9 million.
“The Housemaid” is also Feig’s biggest movie, overtaking 2011’s smash comedy “Bridesmaids” ($289.3 million). This is producer Todd Lieberman’s fourth film to gross above $300 million following 2017’s “Beauty and the Beast” remake, 2009’s rom-com “The Proposal” and 2017’s coming-of-age drama “Wonder.”
